Rants and Reflections on the Good Book by the Skeptical, the Faithful, and a Few Scoundrels

About the Book

“Jael and Sisera” by Artemisia Gentileschi, 1620. From the Szepmuveszeti Museum, Budapest.

Judges 5:21

“Jael, Heber’s wife, took a tent peg and seized a hammer in her hand, and went secretly to him and drove the peg into his temple, and it went through into the ground; for he was
sound asleep and exhausted. So he died.”

Why in heaven’s name is that little gem in the Bible?

What possible eternal lessons are we meant to learn from Jael’s rather Tarantinoesque dispatching of her house guest, Sisera?

The Bible is full of not-so-precious moments like Mrs. Heber’s homicidal (if creative) use of a tent peg.

Murder. Mayhem. Wild sex. Slavery.

And let’s not forget the ritual shunning of shellfish!

Rather than dismiss the difficult passages we thought it’d be a terrific idea to write a devotional book about them….

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Many of us grew up with Our Daily Bread, Day By Day, and other devotional books that were designed to help us navigate our daily (of course) “quiet time” of reading, study, and prayerful reflection on the Bible.

DISQUIET TIME takes its cue from those venerable, traditional devotionals in format and appearance, but with a twist. Each chapter will feature a scripture passage or verse chosen by the contributor, who will write a 1,000-3,000-word reflection about why this part of the Bible most excites, comforts, disturbs, frustrates, or soothes him or her.

The idea is not necessarily to be irreverent, but rather to acknowledge the parts of the Bible that confound and fascinate us. Our aim is to create a book with all of the humor of a satire or parody but none of the snark or vitriol.

DISQUIET TIME is a safe space for our contributing writers to explore honestly and reflect on biblical passages that affect them, for better or for worse, in indelible ways. And our hope is that readers will find that same safety and permission to take a swing at the Bible themselves.

Most of our contributing writers self-identify as believers (of one flavor or another), but not all would place themselves within Christendom’s Big Tent. Some are Jewish, others were reared as Christians but now wear a different label: Buddhist, or agnostic, skeptic, none-of-the-above.

And yet none would dismiss the Bible out of hand. Each takes scripture and its import seriously and handles it with great thoughtfulness.